Nunn Is Too Much for Carl Jones; Sims Scores First-Round Knockout

Eleven in the morning is a little early to be fighting in a town where many people don’t even get up until the sun has gone down.

So it’s understandable that North Hollywood middleweight Michael Nunn, fighting on a Caesars Palace card featuring Robbie Sims against John Collins, might have needed a wake-up call for his scheduled 10-round bout against Carl Jones of Los Angeles.

Nunn got one, at 11:02.

Barely two minutes into the first round of their match, Jones, 158 1/2, dropped him with a left hook, the first time in his brief professional career (14-0, 10 knockouts) Nunn, 160, has been down.

He was up immediately, gave his opponent a thanks-I-needed-that look and proceeded to win an unanimous decision over Jones, now 16-2-4.

In the main event, Sims (26-4-1, 19 knockouts), a younger half-brother of middleweight champion Marvin Hagler, stopped Collins (34-2) at 2:46 of the first round of their scheduled 12-rounder for the United States Boxing Assn. middleweight title. Collins had been down twice and appeared to be heading for the canvas for a third time when the nationally televised fight was halted.

For Nunn, going down once was enough. “I went out and tried to get cocky with him,” Nunn said. “When I got knocked down, I said, this is no place to be, there on my behind. I’ve got to get on my P’s and Q’s. I looked at Jones and thought, I’m in Vegas to fight my fight. Why don’t you get out of my way?”

It was Nunn who spent the rest of the bright, sunny morning staying out of Jones’ way, while racking up enough points to cruise to a victory. On the scorecards, he won, 99-91, 98-91 and 98-93.

Nunn, an alternate on the 1984 U.S. Olympic boxing team, has been compared to a young Muhammad Ali in his ability to dance out of the reach of punches and move around the ring. At this stage of his career, the 22-year-old Nunn tends to dance like a butterfly, but also sting like a butterfly.

Time and again Sunday, he would face the charging Jones, pop him with a jab, slap him with an overhand left and then bail out without following up. It soon became clear Jones, after the opening knockdown, could chase Nunn until the sun went down and not catch him. But it also became clear that Nunn was not going to seriously hurt Jones. With all the running in this fight, these two guys might just as well have stayed in Los Angeles and signed up for the marathon.

No less an authority than former welterweight and junior middleweight champion Sugar Ray Leonard, on hand Sunday, likes what he saw of Nunn. But he also knows what he would like to see.

“The kid has got great natural talent. But what he has to do while throwing those jabs--bam, bam, bam--is to plant his feet,” said Leonard, demonstrating the moves that left many an opponent bewildered, “and then put his body behind his punch.”

Joe Goossen, Nunn’s trainer, was pleased with what he saw in the ring Sunday.

“Some guys are blessed with the power to score a one-punch knockout,” Goossen said, “and some are blessed with that rare combination of speed and beauty and grace that Michael has. You saw which was overwhelming today.”